If you’re struggling to understand which of your marketing efforts are really converting into leads, appointments, clients, and sales, you’re not alone. Maybe it’s time for the help of a 3rd party call tracking platform? There is an entire industry built around helping businesses attribute prospect activity back to marketing efforts to get a better ROI. Digital ad platforms and dashboards can help inform you how your campaigns are performing based on virtual signals. Analytics tools can help you understand how users are functioning within your website and their activity on-page. But measuring the real-world impact of your marketing efforts could be simplified and more accurate with the help of a 3rd party call tracking platform.
If ultimately, what you really want your marketing investment to do is drive real-world interaction with a prospect, like a call for service or a completed contact form for a product installation, or piece of equipment, then it makes sense that a program that tracks and measures those real-world interactions may simplify how you judge which marketing efforts are doing the best.
How many lead phone calls did you get last month?
Would it help if you could tell where they came from?
3rd party call tracking platforms can often tie digitally sourced calls back the keywords used in search campaigns and call extension ads.
By using unique tracking phone numbers for each media or campaign you want to measure, you can better attribute calls and leads back to the appropriate campaign source. 3rd party call tracking programs can help you set up and track lead responses by phone number for each call source you use. Set up a unique number for search, another number for TV, or radio, and another for print, social media, or YouTube…and keep your main/prime phone number for organic calls.
Easy to remember phone numbers may be a big benefit for mass media like Broadcast TV & radio ads, or billboards. Vanity numbers can be ported over to be tracked as well. If you count how many times that phone line rings, and it has only been dispersed to the public via that one media/campaign, it’s easy to count the leads that came from that source.
If you find yourself asking, “Well what if they called from my website?” 3rd party tracking can help you there too. A pixel placed into your site can update the phone number that displays on your website according to where the user traffic originated from. For example, a user who comes into your site from a paid search ad may see the pre-determined phone number ending in “1010,” while a user who came to your site from a social media ad would see the number ending in “0000.” A user who clicked on the organic search results would see the number ending in “2000.”
We often see that with video, TV, radio and billboard campaigns, consumers remember your brand but not your specific phone number (even if it was a vanity number). Prospective customers may then turn towards search to find your brand online, and you may see them come in as organic leads. Asking them the question, “How did you hear about us?” during the conversation, or asking it on the contact form, can help determine if the “First Touch” that influenced the contact was truly another specific media.
How does call tracking help track that first touch, or attribution?
At Brand Ranch Media, we utilize 3rd party call tracking software for all digital marketing clients to track advertising return-on-investment and improve the customer experience for our clients. Our software is well integrated with many ad platforms, analytics programs, and CRMs, and it offers a form of Artificial Intelligence (AI) that “listens” to the recorded calls & conversations, and then analyzes them for pre-selected keywords that can offer further insights. This additional layer of insight into your calls may sound a bit like “big brother” listening to your calls, but the AI technology is very helpful. By setting up and then listening for pre-determined keywords and phrases you can track and categorize your leads into categories or buckets that have value to you.
For instance, in the above question, “How did you hear about us?” The answers may be a keyword that verifies if the caller sites a second source for the call/lead… a response of “TV” could be tracked and measured.
Would it help to know which calls were “good” qualified calls?
If a caller mentions the specific product or services you offer and advertise, that’s probably a sign that they are qualified (not an accidental call). If the AI detects the keyword “appointment” in the conversation, then that may help measure leads that took the next step to become a customer or client and scheduled a consultation, quote, or service.
Listening to the recorded calls can also offer some additional valuable insights. If you aren’t converting phone call-based leads into appointments at the rate you anticipated, perhaps it’s time to “check the tape” (Although 3rd party call tracking is 100% digital now ????). After listening to a few calls, patterns may emerge. Sometimes we hear opportunities for improvement by the call center or receptionist, and with a little coaching, we can improve those appointment rates. We often learn that prospects ask similar questions when they call. This type of insight can help you craft your best response and be better prepared for the next conversation to close the deal or set the appointment.
Some consumers just don’t like phone calls… they prefer to avoid real-life interaction with its uncertainty. Those prospective customers may be more likely to respond via a form fill, messenger communication, or text message. Brand Ranch Media’s call tracking technology offers “form tracking,” which can help source where contact forms, messenger communications, and text messages are coming from. When you combine form tracking, text, and messenger data with your call tracking all in one place it’s a very helpful way to validate your lead data, review trends, and make improvements on where your marketing budget is being allocated.
Would it help to track and know which leads you still have scheduled and which you need to follow up on?
Another benefit of Brand Ranch Media’s call tracking technology is that we can help you track which calls, messages and text leads you still need to reach back out to. You can integrate this with your CRM in some cases or take notes regarding what you need to do to follow up and advance the opportunity within the call tracking platform.
3rd party call tracking can be a huge benefit. It can take a little time and effort to set up the tracking for optimal information and insight across your campaigns and media, but it’s worth it. The insights and the validation gained can make it easy to see where your qualified leads and appointments are really coming from, all the way down to the keywords. When paired and integrated with existing CRMs, ad platforms, and analytics, tying this 3rd party data back to media and campaign performance can help make campaign analysis fast and convenient, quickly paying off through improved performance and ROI.
If you need a hand setting up a way to track the real-world impacts of your marketing efforts don’t hesitate to reach out to us at Brand Ranch Media via phone at 713-309-6380 or through our contact form on our website. We can make it easy to track the ROI for your marketing investment!